Strong odor in northeast Longmont puzzles, repels -- and may be finally dying off

By Scott RochatLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
11/16/2012 06:18:16 PM MST

Updated:
11/16/2012 06:18:53 PM MST

LONGMONT -- It's the year that "Trick or Treat" was paired with "What's that smell?"

"I was embarrassed whenever I opened the door," admitted Marika Baris, who lives near Pace Street and Colo. Highway 66. "It was like 'Get in, fast!'"

Normally, northeastern Longmont is used to strong smells. The area does border a number of farmers' fields, after all, not to mention the city's wastewater treatment plant. But not this strong for quite this long.

How long? Most folks estimate it started sometime in late October and kept going at least until Nov. 10's snowstorm, with some possible milder resurgences since.

How strong? Depending on the neighbor, it smells like "rotting cabbage," "burning dairy farm manure," or even "like something died."

And it's not imagination. Jim Coffman, who works at the wastewater plant, caught a whiff while driving in from Colo. 66.

"It's pretty strong," he said. "It's overwhelming."

But what is it?

First, it might be best to start with what it isn't.

It's not the wastewater plant. That one's certain. Calls did come in after the smell was first reported, Coffman said, but a check found nothing broken or out of place.

It's not Jim Hamm Pond. Well, probably not. The city is dredging the pond, and the decomposed plant life can release quite a whiff -- but visits to the pond found only a relatively light scent; maybe a contributor, but not likely to be the whole cause.

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It's not from Greeley. Most agree the scent's strongest near Colo. 66 and Pace; besides, any wind strong enough to carry a stink that far would create its own problems.

"Greeley would have to bring their feedlots here for it to smell that bad," joked Gary Seghieri, whose home on Bellingham Place is just off Colo. 66.

While no one's pinned down the exact spot, Coffman's pretty sure he's nailed the source. It's definitely manure, he said, possibly a pile that was stored without ever bring spread. Whatever the reason, he said, it was amped up well beyond the usual levels.

"People can live with a manure smell, but that stuff is pretty strong," he said.

Bob Hamblen, the director of the Boulder County Extension Office, said storage by itself probably wouldn't account for the power -- if anything, he said, the power of the smell might go down as the ammonia dissipated. But a liquefied manure might be sharper, he said, especially if it were from chickens or pigs rather than cattle. (If accurate, that would square up with a visitor one neighbor had from Iowa, who said the odor reminded him of swine.)

"Whatever that farmer is using, he's going to be getting corn that's about 60 feet tall," said Seghieri, who used to work on a family ranch in northern California. "That stuff had to be pretty near radioactive."

He laughed.

"We've all suffered through it, so let's hope he has a good crop."

Hamblen said he couldn't be absolutely sure of the cause, but that it would make sense for it to go down after rain and snow -- the water would dilute the ammonia that creates the smell, he said.

Meanwhile, the neighbors are glad for a respite.

"I was just so grateful," Baris said. "If you're sitting out on your deck and you have to run back in the house, something's wrong."